IPOB agitation for secession, misplaced priorities – Don

By Demola Akinyemi
ILORIN – Director, Centre for Peace and Strategic Studies (CPSS), University of Ilorin, Dr. Mahfouz Adedimeji, has said that the agitation for secession by members of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) is misplacement of priorities.

The University Don said this while speaking at the 2017 UN international day of peace and lecture in Ilorin.
Dr. Adedimeji said that secession was not a precursor to the Eldorado that some people were fantasising about.

Adedimeji also posited that agitation for ‎secession is like cutting the head to cure head ache, which is never a solution,even as he added that there are bigger problems unknown to the agitators after secession which they won’t be able to cope with.

He noted that whoever had witnessed war won’t ever opted for it, stressing that there is no way they can embark on secession mission without lives and properties of innocent Nigerians been needlessly lost.

He therefore urged various agitators with one demand or the other to rather embrace dialogue and round table options to achieve their aims.

The university don, who said that there was always a need to work together and respect other people’s views, added that there was also the need to prioritise mutual respect and safety.

According to him,”There is an overarching message of the Peace Day that we need to internalise. The message is the need to work together as one people regardless of our ethnic, religious, political or ideological differences. We are united by a single humanity and we are united by being Nigerians. The Almighty Allah Who brought us together could not have committed an error, He is All-Perfect.

“Therefore, the agitation for secession and the hullabaloo that it is generating are borne out of misplacement of priorities. Apart from secession not being a precursor to the Eldorado that some people are fantasising about, (if so, the war ravaged South Sudan would have been the happiest country in the world) the wrong methodology of animalising everyone who does not share the main protagonist’s views will achieve alienation as pro Biafra agitators are now realising.

Dr. Adedimeji, who called on people to treat one another with dignity, and not making people wallow in the mud, added that they should stop burning people’s mosques.

” Nigerians should all be one and each one of us should stand for other Nigerians. In other words, we should be all for one and one for all”, he said.

Also speaking at the event, Governor Abdulfatah Ahmed said that government could create policies and an enabling environment for its people only if it was not distracted by violence and the people were not hindered by fear.

The governor, who cautioned against utterances or actions capable of threatening the existence, peace and unity of Nigeria, said that young people should be included in peace building and conflict resolution.